Veterans recognized at homeless shelter

PANAMA CITY — Every veteran found their place Monday at the Panama City Rescue Mission.

Jacqueline Bostick / The News Herald

PANAMA CITY — Every veteran found their place Monday at the Panama City Rescue Mission.

“There are no homeless veterans here today,” said the Rev. Billy Fox, executive director of the mission. “There are veterans … military heroes.”

The mission held its eighth annual Veterans Day Celebration on Monday, when veterans were given a standing ovation, personal recognition and a steak meal from LongHorn Steakhouse.

Eighty mission residents who are veterans, some of whom were not in attendance, were honored.

At the opening of the ceremony, the audience was prompted to stand as veterans entered the courtyard; applause and howls rang out as military jets flew over the mission en route to the marina.

Fox warned it was no longer just Vietnam vets his staff is currently helping, but also “Desert Storm and forward.”

“Our main focus is to stabilize the vets,” Fox said, adding that a lot of the organization’s resident vets left their families due to post-traumatic stress disorder and some leaned on drugs.

To aid the veterans, Fox said, the shelter considers them a target population and designates special sleeping arrangements and encourages more former vets to do mentoring.

“ ‘Homeless vets’ is not the definition; these are veterans that are homeless,” he reiterated. “First, they are vets, and, second, homeless, as circumstance have brought them into homelessness.”

During Monday’s ceremony, each veteran’s name was called and asked to stand to be recognized and personally served by active airmen.

Arnold junior ROTC Chief Kyle Richardson, 16, said it was an honor to stand next to the veterans.

“I think the benefit should have been a lot better for them,” he added.

Vanessa Johnson, who served in the Army from 2006 to 2009 and is employed at the mission, was near deployment when she was medically discharged.

“I understand what a lot of them go through; it breaks my heart, but to see that it’s hard to adjust back to civilian life makes me kind of homesick,” Johnson said.

Another recipient veteran, Adam Lariscey, served in the Air Force from 1983 to 1992 and said he recommended everyone serve at least one year in the service.

“Go into the military; you will definitely get a leader to teach you how to be a man,” he said.

Guest speaker Rob Rodriguez, currently a Navy diver and bomb technician, spoke of his motivation to continue to serve the country, regardless of casualties lost. He recalled his experience in Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2011, when a helicopter crash led to the loss of many U.S. lives. One of his good friends lost his life and Rodriguez was commissioned to disclose the information regarding the tragedy to the troop’s wife.

“I refuse to lose hope,” he added.

BayCounty Vet Center, a readjustment counseling service, was on hand at the mission Monday to assist the veterans with information about VA benefits and other aspects of veteran life. Outreach specialist Matthew Standish said he believed the largest aspect of veteran population homelessness stems from not having enough information and not knowing where to go to get it.